Confraternities and archconfraternities
Confraternity of the Cord of St Joseph
Archconfraternity of the Cord of St Joseph · Cincture of St Joseph · Arciconfraternita del Cordone di San Giuseppe
Pius IX approved it
Historically the archconfraternity at San Rocco all'Augusteo, Rome, with local confraternities aggregated to it. Today the cord is most often simply blessed by a parish priest using the approved formula, outside any formal register.
SacramentalsThe blessed white cord with seven knots.
Worth some persistence
In person, with a priest. Free for the blessing; a cord costs a few dollars from a religious goods supplier.
There is no online form for this one, and that is often a good sign: someone enrolls you by hand. Get a white seven knotted cord, ask any priest to bless it with the approved 1859 formula, which is published in full online, and start the seven daily Glory Be prayers; there is no register you can reach to formally join.
Get a white seven knotted cord, ask any priest to bless it with the approved 1859 formula, which is published in full online, and start the seven daily Glory Be prayers; there is no register you can reach to formally join.
This is the St Joseph version of a cord devotion: a white cord tied with seven knots, one for each of the seven sorrows and joys of St Joseph, worn around the waist when you are asking for purity or over the shoulders when you are asking for obedience. The daily practice is seven Glory Be prayers in St Joseph's honour. A priest blesses the cord using a formula approved in 1859, which asks that whoever wears it be helped to live chastely and obediently and be granted health of mind and body. People choose it when they want St Joseph specifically, rather than St Thomas Aquinas, as the patron of that struggle.
Where it comes from
Blessed Pope Pius IX approved an official formula for blessing the cord of St Joseph on 19 September 1859 and attached indulgences to wearing it on 14 March 1862. The archconfraternity was erected around 1860 at the Church of San Rocco all'Augusteo in Rome.
What you promise
Wear the blessed white cord with seven knots. Recite seven Glory Be prayers daily in honour of St Joseph. Where a formal confraternity exists, members are also entered in its register and aggregated to the Roman archconfraternity.
What the Church attaches
Indulgences attached by Pius IX in 1862 to the wearing of the blessed cord, and the historic indulgences of the Roman archconfraternity for aggregated members. Because no current register or official list could be reached, the present indulgence grants should not be stated with confidence.
Enrollment checked 2026-10-22. Details change without notice and parish practice varies. Confirm before relying on this sheet.